


The (All-in-)One

by Lunatic_Lullaby



Category: DCU - Comicverse, Robin (Comics), Teen Titans (Comics)
Genre: F/M, Genderqueer Character, Identity Issues, Identity Porn, M/M, Tim is a chameleon, Zach gets a bad rap, fluid gender identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-31
Updated: 2013-03-31
Packaged: 2017-12-07 02:59:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/743412
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunatic_Lullaby/pseuds/Lunatic_Lullaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dating Tim is like buying a variety pack of personfriends.  Zach approves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The (All-in-)One

**Author's Note:**

> Written for my claim at dcu_freeforall with the prompt 'open.'

Zach knew his playboy reputation invited strangers to make terrible assumptions but they had it all wrong.  He wasn't at liberty to truly explain himself, and might not bother if he could, but he hadn't ever set out to gather a _collection_ of lovers. 

He began with _one_ person.  Someone who was sharp in all the right ways, who he could feel at peace with.  If that One had been anyone else, his life would be far less exciting, the tabloids would have nothing to rabble about and Wonder Girl wouldn't give him dirty looks everytime they met.  But after becoming entangled with the one who he had chased after, other deeply fascinating lovers began working their way into his life, demanding his attention. 

They all knew about each other, in their own way, and some of them had a great deal in common.  They all left identical bite marks in his skin and trembled just so, _in flagrante._   A few of them even had the same blue eyes that had first made his heart skip a beat when he was seventeen, feeling that warning stumble of falling in love.

And as the Greatest Overworked Teenaged Magician in the World, he was happy to indulge them.  How could he be faulted when they were all so _entertaining?_

The first addition was Alvin, a boy his age who thought he looked much cooler than he really did, wearing sunglasses indoors, his already small frame dwarved in baggy clothes.  They had met on the subway in New York and he invited the boy who was hiding his pretty eyes behind thick black shades to attend his magic show.  There was something so _satisfying_ in seeing him blush. 

Alvin tried to seem easygoing and cock-sure but underneath the cool guy bluster was someone hesitant, with a softer nature that endeared him to Zach. 

(It was just _fun_ the first time.  An exciting new game.)

Then in Chicago he met Kylie, 'legal' name Kyle, a girl he wouldn't want to lose.  She loved to lead him through parties like the dawn meant nothing for either of them.  He had nearly slept through a gig once, trying to catch up on the rest he missed by following her from one rabbit hole to the next.  She had a tolerance for alcohol he couldn't rival _(trained_ into her, it _had_ to be and what was Wayne _thinking_ -) and danced with him as if the motion was setting her free after a lifetime of keeping still. 

Kylie lived as if she was dying and kissed him like he was the last person she would want to let go of at the end.

(That was when he knew what they were doing for the first time, without having to be told.  Feeling the body he knew shaking from emotions he'd never seen before said it all.)

In a Metropolis coffee house he found the coy and reserved Jane.  She was very precise in her words and movements, the heat in her eyes as they bantered speaking of how much she would enjoy seeing him brought low before her.  There were promises of punishment in every subtle come-on and sharp-nailed gesture.

Jane was thrilling and captivating in ways he was afraid to think on too strongly.

(Sometimes Zach came so close to asking the wrong questions with Jane, the ones that would break the illusion, because he knew who she was one letter away from becoming and even five years after that woman's death, the utterance of her name made people pause and tense like startled rabbits.)

Surprisingly one of the last to approach him was Robin, who he found everywhere and had known for years.  No matter the city or country, he had come to half-expect that his fellow Titan would be dropping in for a favor.  It was a pleasant change of pace to have him step out from the shadows of his dressing room for a kiss instead. 

Robin was a wildcard.  He never knew what moods, adventures or out-of-box philosophies he was going to be confronted with when dealing with him.  Zach's private hero was a cool professional in the field but could become outright vicious if he felt agitated; they were alike in that way, which led to explosive arguments that he couldn't convince himself not to want.

(Handling the edges was far less awkward than when Robin would drop all of that and affect a lighter mood, using premeditated phrases that had to have been adapted straight from afterschool specials as part of an act which Zach thought was meant to convince everyone they needn't be nervous because Robin was _just a normal kid, no really.)_

His favorite partner, if forced to choose, was still the one who he had started with; the witty, shy heir to Bruce Wayne.  He first met Tim at a private charity event in Gotham, sipping champagne and pretending to be interested in the conversations around them.  Tim was charming even without meaning to be, looked like sex in a suit and had a brilliant mind.  When he was with him the kisses were sweet and every point of contact was _significant,_ magnifying the most innocent touches until they could make Zach's breath catch.

Tim brought him a feeling of quiet contentment that was missing with everyone else.

Perhaps because everyone else became so much trouble.

"Your brothers are going to kill me," he hissed at the latest scandal his assistant Bunny was texting him over, the online tabloids flaunting freshly leaked pictures of Zatara with his hands inside Landon's clothes as they made out in Hyde Park.  _Landon_ from _London;_ sometimes he wondered how Tim came up with these things.  (And why had Landon needed to be a brown-eyed blonde with a tan who looked _nothing_ like Tim anyway?)

Tim didn't answer, but Kylie raised an eyebrow at him, completely unimpressed with his attitude.  She was lying on her stomach on the bed in his hotel room, kicking her heeled feet in lazy anticipation as she waited for him to calm the hell down.

Zach quietly sighed and set his phone down on the dresser; she was right, this really wasn't the time.  He wasn't even sure if _Kylie_ had brothers or if they'd been written out of her identity's background altogether.  As she hummed approvingly and sat up on her knees with a predatory showing of teeth, he didn't really care.


End file.
